Sunday, April 11, 2010

Standard-Examiner Editorial: Dump Greiner!

If Gentle Curmudgeon were of suspicious turn of mind, he might be wondering...

By Curmudgeon

A pretty good editorial in this morning's Standard-Examiner:
Why Give Up $215,000?
Good question. From the editorial:
Apparently Jon Greiner will remain as Ogden's chief of police and the city will pass up $215,000 in future federal grants -- its penalty for Greiner's violation of the Hatch Act when he signed off on federal grants while campaigning for his state senate seat....
Greiner was clearly guilty of violating the Hatch Act, according to Judge Lana Parke's 22-page ruling, which agreed with the U.S. Office of Special Counsel....
Parke wrote, "By choosing to disregard Office of Special Counsel's warning, Chief Greiner voluntarily and knowingly placed himself at risk of prosecution...."
There is no need to keep Greiner as Ogden's police chief. Contrasted with the loss of $215,000, Greiner is expendable...
The SE editorial board got that right. Pretty good editorial overall, except that it continues the SE's long-standing policy of tip-toeing ever so g-e-n-t-l-y around the name of Hizzonah, Mayor Matthew Godfrey when attributing responsibility for the mess. Instead, the editorial talks vaguely about the responsibility of un-named "Ogden City Officials."

As I understand it, Ogden's police chief is appointed by and serves at the pleasure of the Mayor. All Mayor Godfrey had to do was ask his crony, Jon "Double Dip" Greiner for his resignation as police chief, and Ogden would be spared forgoing nearly a quarter of a million dollars in what the SE rightly identifies as "the people's money." Presumably Mayor Godfrey could still save the public's money by asking for Double Dip's resignation. He should. But he won't.

If I were of suspicious turn of mind, I might be wondering about now what Chief Double Dip Greiner has on Hizzonah that has guaranteed the Chief his continuing job at an additional and needless cost of nearly a quarter of a million dollars in the public's money.....

12 comments:

Dan Schroeder said...

What Curm said.

Monotreme said...

What Curm and Dan S. said.

me too said...

This hardly ever happens, but I agree with all of you. Greiner should go and set an example for all those other un-named city officals.

Pieces of Eight said...

I find it difficult to believe that with the current budget crunch, that he would not have resigned already.
I mean, hell, he broke the law.

Time for a new Big Dog down at Ogden Police HQ.

dusgusted nellie! said...

I do not relish the thought of my money going to pay any of the $215,000.00 Greiner knew he was going to cost the City when he dug his heels in when he was told he was in violation of the Hatch Act.

He and Godfrey need to be tarred and feathered and run out of town on a rail like the Ole West used to do to take care of crooks!

SUCH STUPIDITY!

AHA! said...

The insurance company paying this loss for Ogden is going to get their money back someway - premiums are going up!

This will guarantee rate hikes for Ogden because Ogden's dummies will keep putting the Lord Mayor back in office-

drewmeister said...

So Shurtleft says it's the big, scary, socialist power-grabbing government's fault that Ogden will lose a quarter mil in federal funding, not the fact that Shurtleft advised Greiner to, well, break the law. Whew, glad we have that sorted out.

Oh, and glad we don't have to worry about the costs of legal representation - that's free because the city's insurance pays for it.

blackrulon said...

Greiner could help pay the $215,00 by simply taking a reduced salary. Who sets the salary rate? Could the city council reduce Greiners pay? Who wnts to bet that one of the main campaign issues in the next mayoral election will be on keeping or replacing the police chief? How many additional police officers could $215,000 pay for? This is a problem even Gary Williams cannot simply announced "cured".

Booner said...

In today's fiscal environment, only in Ogden would someone in this position be allowed to stay. What a disservice to the citizens.

Danny said...

City council, where are you on this?

Nowhere?

Thought so.

BenJoeM said...

I spoke with Greiner and he told me they have already spent $250,000 on his legal defense too. So in reality we are blowing close to $500,000 on this thing this year alone.

The one who has courage said...

The whole issue is about.... Who made the decision? Who should be held accountable? Should the person who works for the taxpayer really keep his job which is called a public trust job? The answer to all the above is Jon Greiner and I will be at the next Council meeting to call for accountability of this mess.

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